Interview with cozy mystery author Meg Benjamin

Today’s special guest is cozy mystery author Meg Benjamin and we’re chatting about The Pepper Peach Murder.

During her virtual book tour, Meg will be awarding a $20 Amazon or Barnes and Noble (winner’s choice) gift card to a lucky randomly drawn winner. To be entered for a chance to win, use the form below. To increase your chances winning, feel free to visit her other tour stops and enter there, too!

Bio:
Meg Benjamin is an award-winning author of romance. Meg’s Konigsburg series is set in the Texas Hill Country and her Salt Box and Brewing Love trilogies are set in the Colorado Rockies (all are available from Entangled Publishing). Her new cozy mystery series, Luscious Delights from Wild Rose Press, concerns a jam-making sleuth based in the mythical small town of Shavano, Colorado. Along with contemporary romance, Meg is also the author of the paranormal Ramos Family trilogy from Berkley InterMix and the Folk trilogy from Soul Mate. Meg’s books have won numerous awards, including an EPIC Award, a Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award, the Holt Medallion from Virginia Romance Writers, the Beanpot Award from the New England Romance Writers, and the Award of Excellence from Colorado Romance Writers.

Welcome, Meg. Please tell us about your current release.
The Pepper Peach Murder is the first book in the Luscious Delights series. My heroine is a jam-making Greek-American living and working in a Colorado mountain town. She’s just finding her feet again after a nasty experience as a line cook in Denver and exploring a romance with a local chef. But her developing relationship runs into murder. Here’s the blurb:

Roxy Constantine is the jam queen of Shavano, Colorado. But her social life is a bust, and she’s still recovering from a bad experience as a line cook in Denver. Things improve when she meets tasty local chef Nate Robicheaux, but she’s also fending off the attentions of another local, Brett Holmes, who won’t take no for an answer. When Brett threatens to derail Roxy’s career, the two have a very public fight. A few days later, Brett is found murdered in his restaurant kitchen, and suddenly Roxy’s a prime suspect. Now she must find the truth about Brett and his murderer before the town of Shavano decides her reign as jam queen is over for good.

What inspired you to write this book?
Serendipity more than anything. I wanted to try writing a cozy mystery as a break from my normal romance novels because I enjoy reading them. When I was casting around for an interesting occupation for my heroine, I hit on jam, at least in part because I wanted to experiment with jam-making myself. And it gave me another chance to write something set in the Colorado mountains, one of my very favorite places.

 

Excerpt from The Pepper Peach Murder:
It would be better for him to hear it from you than to discover it on his own.

Nate’s voice still echoed in my ears. For a moment, I wished I’d asked him to come with me. But I had to face this on my own. It was my disaster, after all.

I climbed up the stairs to the front door, pausing for a moment to check the directory on the wall inside. The chief’s office was on the first floor, right down the hall. Once I turned in that direction, there’d be no going back. I’d be committed to confessing.

I walked down the corridor, feeling like I was going to the executioner’s block.

There was a receptionist for the chief’s office along with the county attorney and the sheriff. I didn’t recognize her, which was just as well. This visit wasn’t something I wanted shared on social media.

She looked up expectantly. “Yes?”

“I need to see Chief Fowler.” I was amazed that my voice was steady.

“Do you have an appointment?”

I shook my head. “He’ll want to talk to me. Tell him it’s Roxy Constantine.”

The receptionist picked up her phone and dialed a number, turning away from me as she spoke.

Of course, I wasn’t absolutely sure Fowler would want to see me. Maybe he’d be too busy. Maybe he wasn’t interested. Maybe…

The receptionist glanced up at me. “Go on in. He’ll see you now.”

So much for hope. I opened the office door and stepped inside.

Fowler was sitting at his utilitarian, city-issued desk. He gazed up at me with that same unsmiling, inscrutable look he always seemed to wear. I wondered if he ever smiled. Probably not at people like me, people he suspected of murder.

I cleared my throat. “I have some things to tell you.”

He gestured to the chair in front of his desk. “Sit down, Ms. Constantine. I’ve been expecting you.”

 

What exciting story are you working on next?
The next book in the Luscious Delights series, The Pumpkin Butter Murder, will be coming out sometime this year. And I’ll be publishing another in my long-running Konigsburg, Texas, series, Take That Ride, this summer.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?
I was a college teacher for several years, and writing was part of my job. I got used to writing and publishing regularly. But that was work. When my first novel (Venus In Blue Jeans) came out in 2009, that really was the icing on the cake.

Do you write full-time? If so, what’s your workday like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?
I try to write at least 1000 words every day, usually in the afternoon since I catch up on email and social media in the morning. I’m retired now, so writing’s my primary “job.” But I live in Colorado, so I also get to go hiking in the summer and snowshoeing in the winter, both of which I love!

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
I keep an Excel spreadsheet of my word totals for each day. It’s a way to keep myself honest about the “at-least-1000-words” thing.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
What I ended up being, pretty much: a teacher and a writer.

Anything additional you want to share with the readers?
Luscious Delights is a cozy mystery series, but it also has an ongoing romance plot because that’s the kind of book I like to read. I know some cozies are strictly mysteries, with septuagenarian heroines, but that’s hard for a romance writer like me. Roxy’s in her thirties and exploring the possibilities of romance with her sexy chef boyfriend, Nate.

Links:
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